Video: French riders take centre stage in An Post Rás

A French rider has never taken the overall classification in the sixty year history of the An Post Rás, but two riders from that country moved centre stage yesterday when they clocked up the two most important podium spots at the stage finish in Buncrana.

AVC Aix En Provence competitor Thomas Rostollan attacked solo approximately an hour from the end of the 149 kilometre stage, riding strongly over the remaining climbs and powering on to the finish. He hit the line nine seconds ahed of Martin Hunal (Czech Republic AC Sparta Praha) and Jonathan Fumeaux (Switzerland Atlas Jakroo), with the latter’s team-mate Nicolas Baldo two seconds further back.

The result saw 27 year old Baldo join his compatriot on the podium as the new overall leader of the race.

Baldo wears yellow heading into today’s sixth stage, a 134 kilometre race from Buncrana to Killybegs. It features four climbs, including the three category two ascents plus the first category Glengesh Pass and, if he can get through it in the race lead, will leave him with just two flatter stages before the race ends on Sunday.

Baldo and Fumeaux rode aggressively throughout the stage, reasoning that the best way to help defend the team’s grip on the yellow jersey – their team-mate Pirmin Lang was at the head of the general classification – was to go on the offensive and force the other teams to chase.

They went clear 41 kilometres after the start, putting Baldo into yellow on the road when they opened a lead of a minute and a half, but decided after 34 kilometres that they move was not worth continuing.

“In the beginning it was a mistake because we didn’t expect such big road and open landscape,” Baldo explained. “We said that maybe we can make the race harder and preserve some force for our leader in the back [Pirmin Lang] by going together with my team mate at the front, but it was like suicide. We stopped the effort.”

They turned on the gas again on the big climb of Mamore Gap. Rostollan had flown the coop at that point, breaking away on a previous climb and beginning a successful push for stage victory and the mountains jersey, but Fumeaux tore up Mamore. He, Baldo and the Czech Hunal combined from there to the finish, coming in over 25 second ahead of Lang’s chase group.

“The climb today was really steep,” said Baldo, referring to Mamore Gap. “It’s not a climb I enjoyed because I’m a heavy rider and it’s hard for me to go to the top. But it was ok, I had good legs. It was more a terrain for my team-mate Jonathan Fumeaux; I really hurt myself to stay with him, and afterwards we could help each other. It was good to finish together on the line.”

Baldo has taken some good results in the past, including runner-up slots in La Roue Tourangelle and the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, and three years ago beating Peter Sagan to nab a stage of the Giro del Friuli. He said that the An Post Rás would be his biggest win if he can hold onto yellow until the end of the race, but also knows that it’s a tough race to control tactically.

“It’s really difficult to have a strategy like in other UCI races,” he explained. “We are only five riders [on each squad – ed.], there’s thirty five teams, everybody goes in breakaways and it’s a war each day. So, today it was me and my team mate Jonathan, maybe tomorrow it will be Pirmin again.

“The important thing is that we don’t lose the jersey. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or him in the yellow jersey, the important thing is not to lose the race.”